This is a great vegetarian dish and would make enough for a lot of call nights!. The recipe calls for garlic oil (which I’ve never heard of). I’d skip it or, if you really want to add a little garlic taste, mash up a couple of cloves in some olive oil (like 2 tblsp) before you start and let it sit while everything else is cooking. You can drizzle the olive oil over the pasta at the end.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (cut to one table spoon if you are watching calories)

2 Yukon gold potatoes cut into 6ths or 8ths

Start with the base of the sauce

Saute the shallot (or onion) in the olive oil

Add the garlic until you smell it (more and it will burn = bitter)

Pour in the chicken stock

Bring to a boil

Add the potatoes – drop the heat to a simmer and cook until just fork tender (~8-10 min)

Pour in the frozen peas – cook for 3 minutes

Take the potatoes out and save

Take out a third of the peas with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl to use later

Put everything else (minus the peas and potatoes you took out) into a blender until smooth. (If you don’t own a blender, this is a critical tool for residents so go out and get one! Smoothies are a key food item for medical students and residents and blenders are cheap!)

Make the relish

Cut up the tomatoes, olives, basil, red onion

Add to the peas you saved from above

Add the olive oil

“Grill” the fish

Use a grill pan or non-stick sauté pan (another important piece of resident equipment)

Garnish bowls with chopped avocado (1/4th per serving), cilantro and pico de gallo

Optional: Add cooked rice and/or shredded cheese

* to make pico de gallo (if you can’t find it ready made) combine 3 diced tomatoes, 1 diced onion, chopped cilantro, one diced (fine) jalapeno, salt and lime juice. This is a great dip for chips or to put on grilled fish or chicken, too.

One thought on “Recipes for Medical Students and Residents”

One of my favorite shortcuts is buying one of those whole roasted chickens at the grocery store. They’re already cooked, they’re warm when you buy them, and you can used them for at least 3 meals! Obviously, if you’re cooking for more than one person, you might be able to only make 2 of these things from one chicken.

Day 1: Good ‘ol chicken breast (sometimes I’m so hungry when I’m grocery shopping after work that I don’t want to take the time to do something complicated)
– take the breast off the chicken, put it on a plate
– bag salad or canned veggie
– yummy dinner in 60 seconds!

Day 3. Chicken quesadillas or chicken nachos
– remove the rest of the chicken meat
– put it in a frying pan, add some water (~1/3 cup, depending on how much chicken)
– add 1/2 packet of taco seasoning, stir
– cook over medium heat, just until the chicken is heated thru and the water evaporates

Ok, now you have really tasty meat that you can use like you’d use taco meat. These are my two favorite things to do with it:
1. Quesadillas
– (optional: saute some onions until they’re translucent)
– in a non-stick pan, spray some cooking spray or use a tiny bit of oil
– lay down a flour tortilla, some shredded cheddar, the chicken, the onions, then another small layer of cheese
– cook on medium heat until tortilla browns
– flip over by transferring to a plate or by using 2 spatulas
– cook 2nd side until browns
– garnish with sour cream, salsa, or whatever you like!